Put Children Ahead of Ideology in Adoption and Foster Care

Advocate
by Mara Keisling and Rev. Stan J. Sloan
May 18, 2018

Every parent feels differently about how to fulfill the needs of their children. When should you wean a child off their bottle? How much screen time should a child have? How do you find the right mix of punishing bad behavior and rewarding good behavior?

Beyond disagreement, however, is the need of every child for a devoted and nurturing home. At any given moment, 125,000 children lack this basic measure of support, languishing in group homes or on the endless waiting lists of our nation’s overcrowded, underfunded foster care system.

Despite the needs of these children, lawmakers and religious extremists want to restrict these children from finding the loving homes they so desperately need. Just this month, legislatures in Kansas and Oklahoma sought to authorize discrimination against capable, eager LGBT parents by private adoption services. Gov. Fallin of Oklahoma signed that state’s bill into law, and the bill in Kansas is expected to be signed, as well.

These policies are a dangerous assault on the right of every child to a stable and caring family. The notion that someone will be a lesser parent simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity is simply repugnant, and refuted by decades of research showing the exact opposite. If signed into law, these bills will stand as a hateful barrier between caring parents and the children who so desperately need them.